As I was scrolling down my timeline on Instagram, I skimmed pass a really famous Youtuber with two braids. As I stopped, I saw two words I had never seen to describe classic braids to be back, those words were “Boxer Braids”. I instantly got really annoyed and even found myself to comment, “you mean cornrows”. I then Googled this term “boxer braids “only to find out it is a “trend”.

As I reflected on my younger days I began to remember sitting between my sisters legs as she braided my hair. I think wondered how on earth could something black people have done since the beginning of everything suddenly become a trend.

Photo Credit: [Unknown woman] (N.D.) Retrieved on April 8 2016 from http://www.chaos-mag.com/the-time-has-cometo-embrace-your-baby-hairs/That’s not the first time this has happened and quite frankly I am tired. Zendaya was told she looked like she smelled like weed with her locs, but Kylie Jenner was edgy. Givenchy presented models for their fall 2015 collection with their baby hair slicked down, just as I have always seen black women do.

I think the confusion and disassociation of calling hairstyles trends comes from not truly understanding what cultural appropriation is. It also stems from structural racism in the sense that things are better if a white person does it.

Photo Credit: [Tiana Parker] (N.D.) Retrieved on April 8 2016 on https://authorreneebrooks.wordpress.com/tag/tiana-parker/Black women and men have been fired from their jobs, and suspended from school for wearing the hairstyles that are now being labeled as trends. Black hair is a lot of things, but our hair is not a trend.